Trevor Nicholas Gomez has been appointed as the newest member of the Normalisation Committee for the T&T Football Association (TTFA).
Gomez joins the other three previously appointed members of the Normalisation Committee – Robert Hadad (Chairperson), Judy Daniel (Deputy Chairperson) and Nigel Romano (Member) who were appointed, on March 26, last year to their respective positions to help stabilised the embattled TTFA.
Gomez is a Chartered Accountant and the Executive Chairman of Gravitas Business Solutions.
Throughout his distinguished career, the former national cricketer also served as Assurance Leader of EY Caribbean and Country Managing Partner of EY, Trinidad.
In correspondence to chairperson Hadad, FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura stated that Gomez commenced duties on March 15, 2021.
“The new member shall assume his duties as from 15 March 2021 and will have to pass an eligibility check to be carried out by the FIFA Review Committee in accordance with the FIFA Governance Regulations,” Samoura stated.
“All other terms of the mandate of the Normalisation Committee as decided by the Bureau of the FIFA Council, as well as the other members of the Normalisation Committee, appointed on 26 March 2020 shall remain the same,” the correspondence continued.
The mandate of the Normalisation Committee will include the following:
- to run the TTFA's daily affairs;
- to establish a debt repayment plan that is implementable by the TTFA;
- to review and amend the TTFA Statutes (and other regulations where necessary) and to ensure their compliance with the FIFA Statutes and requirements before duly submitting them for approval to the TTFA Congress;
- to organise and conduct elections of a new TTFA Executive Committee for a four-year mandate.
The Normalisation Committee will act as an electoral committee, and none of its members will be eligible for any of the open positions in the TTFA elections under any circumstances.
The timing of Gomez's public announcement was done to facilitate the finalisation of additional technical formalities and paperwork.
Businessman Hadad welcomed the addition of Gomez said he was looking forward to working with him to fulfil the mandate in the interest of T&T football.
On March 26, last year a three-member FIFA normalization committee (NC), headed by Hadad, was appointed to take over the governance of T&T football with immediate effect.
FIFA, the world governing body for the sport of football, in collaboration with the Confederation of North, Central America and the Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) was expected to appoint two more members over the coming days, a release from the FIFA stated, which they did in Daniel and Romano.
The appointments came even as displaced members of the TTFA which included president William Wallace and his three vice presidents Clynt Taylor, Joseph "Sam" Phillip and Susan Joseph-Warrick were, through their Attorneys Dr Emir Crowne and Matthew GW Gayle, on the verge of applying to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to have the decision by the FIFA to appoint a normalisation committee to manage the affairs of local football rescinded.
FIFA, on March 17, 2020, took a decision to enforce articles 8.2 of its Statutes, which states: "Executive bodies of member associations may under exceptional circumstances be removed from office by the Council in consultation with the relevant confederation and replaced by a normalization committee for a specific period of time."
The committee is not supposed to last more than two years, with a mandate that also includes organising fresh elections of a new administration of the embattled football association.
Hadad, who is one of three Chief Executive Officers of the HADCO Group of Companies and a member of the Queen's Park Cricket Club, brings a wealth of experience from the corporate community in T&T and along with Daniel, Romano and newest addition, Gomez, has been tasked with turning around an organisation that FIFA considered being on the verge of insolvency following a claim by the TTFA that it had a crippling debt of TT$50 million, which has now increased to almost TT$100 million.